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Fifty-Five New Housing Vouchers for Veterans Headed Our Way

On the heels of declaring victory for utilizing all 305 of the community’s Veterans Assistance Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers, the Department of Veteran Affairs announced that 55 more vouchers are coming our way.

VASH is a federal program funded by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veteran Affairs (VA). The program provides rent assistance for homeless, disabled veterans. The program is administered by Portland’s VA Medical Center and Home Forward.

Operation 305 - a group of dedicated partners from Home Forward, Multnomah County and many service providers, convened by the Portland Housing Bureau’s manager of the Ending Homelessness Team, Sally Erickson - formed to make sure that every last voucher found its way into the hands of veterans.

Operation 305 quickly identified the barriers to rapidly deploying vouchers. Among them was paying for moving expenses like a bus ticket, an ID card, rental application fees and furnishings. VASH only pays for rent. Last month, the very last veteran moved into his new home thanks to a tremendous effort from Operation 305.

According to Sally Erickson, the groundwork has been set so our community is ready to quickly deploy this new VASH allocation.

For more information about receiving a VASH voucher, contact The VA’s Community Resource and Referral Center at 308 S.W. First Ave., 503–808-1256 or 1-800-949-1004 Ext. 51256 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

If you are a landlord seeking more information about accepting a veteran with rent assistance, contact Home Forward’s dedicated Landlord Services Team at landlordservices@homeforward.org or 503-802-8333, Option 6.